Chapter 82: What Do You Mean, Four Void Hunters in One Bookstore? (Patreon)

"Wow, i-i-it's... it's Hoshimi Miyabi!"

Even Aria and Nangong, usually the calm ones, looked a little worked up as the figure walked into the room.

Sunna was out front serving customers and hadn't seen Hoshimi Miyabi come in.

"Hm? Hello. Can you tell who I am?"

A trace of puzzlement crossed Hoshimi Miyabi's cute little face as she looked at Nangong and Aria. She'd put on a disguise, hadn't she? How had they still spotted her?

"You didn't seriously think your disguise was clever, did you?"

Musachi's mouth twitched. Hoshimi Miyabi had indeed disguised herself today. She wore a plaid shirt and an orange-and-white checkered scarf around her neck.

Below that came a long black skirt, her slender calves wrapped in black cotton tights, and a pair of plain casual shoes on her feet.

Going by that alone, she'd look perfectly ordinary walking down the street, and nobody would guess who she was.

The problem was Hoshimi Miyabi's ears.

She had put on a little yellow round cap, but her ears were so tall that they stubbornly poked out through its opening, as conspicuous as could be.

"Shopkeeper... you know Lady Hoshimi Miyabi?" Nangong, standing nearby, had caught Musachi's tone and expression and was a little startled. She turned to him as she asked.

"Yeah, we go back a ways. The first time we met, she wanted to grab my hand and drag me off to her place."

Musachi nodded, grinning.

"Whoa."

Aria stared at Musachi in amazement.

"For the record, he was an illegal Proxy at the time, and I only wanted him to come back with me for trial."

Hoshimi Miyabi corrected him flatly, having listened to Musachi's version of events.

"I see..."

Aria said, looking a little guilty herself. She'd been so excited just now that she'd forgotten she was an outlaw too...

"And then what happened?"

Sunna had wandered in at some point. She looked at Hoshimi Miyabi with stars in her eyes, the very picture of an admirer.

"Then? Then I ran. She couldn't catch me."

Musachi grinned, smug. "By the time she found me again, I was regular army. She couldn't catch me."

"Liar."

Hoshimi Miyabi puffed out her cheeks and glared at him reproachfully. Then she reached into her pocket, pulled out a key, and dangled it in front of Musachi a couple of times.

Yes, that was the key to this very shop.

Clearly, Hoshimi Miyabi was reminding him who he was dealing with.

"Aw, come on, I was kidding, Landlady! Please, have a seat!"

In an instant, Musachi's attitude did a complete one-eighty. He hovered at Hoshimi Miyabi's side, rubbing his hands together fawningly.

"So what brings the great Lady Hoshimi Miyabi to our humble shop? If it's within my power, I'll give it everything I've got! Oh right, what would you like to drink? I'll pour it for you."

"Plain water is fine."

Hoshimi Miyabi was quite pleased with his attitude. The corners of her mouth rose by two pixels.

"You got it! Loyal as ever!"

Musachi nodded and went off to pour her a glass of water.

By the time he came back with the cup, the trio had gathered around Hoshimi Miyabi, peppering her with questions, curious about everything.

"I've watched your combat footage! Wow, so amazing! You took down an Ethereal that huge in a single strike!"

"Hmm... if it were Sunna, she'd definitely be scared to tears, right? Just hearing it described sounds terrifying~"

"Who wouldn't be scared!"

Seeing this, Musachi set the cup down in front of Hoshimi Miyabi and rolled his eyes.

"Alright, quit crowding her. You never fawn over me like this, and she's not the one paying your wages!"

He waved a hand, rolling his eyes again.

"Hehe, but she's a Void Hunter! A big shot we'd never get to meet otherwise. Of course we want to find out everything while we have the chance~"

Nangong said with a smile.

"Exactly, exactly."

Sunna, for once in her life, stood on the same side as Nangong.

"Exactly, exactly."

Aria the human parrot echoed.

"It's just a Void Hunter. Is that really so special?"

Musachi rolled his eyes and said sourly.

These three, forgetting their old love the moment they'd found a new one.

Besides, Void Hunters weren't exactly rare around here. If Remielle and Beli hadn't gone out looking at apartments so that Beli could move nearby, this bookshop would have four of them right now.

"So, Shopkeeper, when are you going to become a Void Hunter?"

Nangong asked slyly.

"Why, right—!"

Musachi started to answer, then noticed Hoshimi Miyabi watching him with keen interest.

"Right when the opportunity comes! I'm waiting for the chance that will make me famous overnight!"

He said it with a perfectly straight face.

"Then I've got a great idea. Shopkeeper, go speedrun Hollow Zero! If you can clear Hollow Zero fast enough, you'll definitely become a Void Hunter!"

"What sane person speedruns Hollow Zero for fun? That's suicide."

Musachi rolled his eyes.

Well, what he'd done back then hadn't been much different from suicide, honestly.

If his strength hadn't been rock solid, he really would've died in there...

"By the way, Lady Hoshimi Miyabi, did you need the Shopkeeper for something?"

Sunna asked, curious.

In the public's mind, Hoshimi Miyabi was an aloof Void Hunter, cold and unreachable as a flower on a high cliff.

"I came to get the honeydew melon that's owed to me."

Hoshimi Miyabi said earnestly.

"Ho... honeydew melon? Is that some kind of weird code word?"

Aria looked curiously at Musachi.

So professional! She never imagined they'd have their own secret code!

"Nope, it's just an actual honeydew melon. Last time I went to the Hoshimi Family's gymnasium to mess around, something went wrong, and I got it smoothed over through Hoshimi Miyabi's connections. As compensation, I'm buying her a melon."

Musachi explained cheerfully, while the trio exchanged glances. Her price for helping was a melon...?

This Void Hunter seemed rather different from the personality people described online...

"Alright, alright, enough fooling around with you lot."

Musachi turned to Hoshimi Miyabi with a grin.

"Let's go."

"Where?"

Hoshimi Miyabi was curious.

"To buy the melon, of course."

As he spoke, he took Hoshimi Miyabi's small hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world and headed for the door.

Before leaving, Musachi asked the trio to mind the shop.

They were already old hands at signing people up for membership cards, so it wouldn't be a problem. Besides, at this hour there were hardly any customers.

Once they were out of the shop, Musachi smoothly shifted his grip on her hand and laced their fingers together. Hoshimi Miyabi turned her head away, a flicker passing through her red eyes, but she didn't resist and let him lead her along obediently.

If a paparazzo had caught the two of them like this, the next day's front pages would have been swamped.

Of course, the likelier outcome was that the post would be locked within a minute of going up, and within ten minutes the Hoshimi Family's men in black suits would show up at the photographer's door to give him a full round of military boxing.

Damn it, you dared to snap our Hoshimi Family's young lady? Looks like your guts are nice and plump!

"What brings you to my place today?"

Musachi glanced at Hoshimi Miyabi beside him, though under the brim of her cap all he could see was her smooth little face.

"I finished up what I was working on, and I happened to be free this afternoon, so I came over."

Hoshimi Miyabi said softly.

"Was it Hollow Zero?"

Musachi eyed her curiously.

Hoshimi Miyabi nodded.

"Nineveh is going through her periodic activation. I need to go suppress her."

"Can't you just kill her? With your strength, you shouldn't have trouble taking out one Ether composite."

Musachi frowned, curious.

"No. By our current calculations, leaving Nineveh as she is would be the safest option. Her ability is rather special."

Hoshimi Miyabi shook her head lightly, then slowly began explaining Nineveh's characteristics to Musachi.

Even among Ethereals, Nineveh was a very special case.

She was an Ethereal composite, but not an ordinary one. Her full designation was Mutualistic Symbiotic Ethereal Swarm, codename: Nineveh.

As a level-six Ethereal, Nineveh's power wasn't actually among the strongest, but she had an ability that no other level-six Ethereal possessed.

Absorptive symbiosis.

Nineveh was like a pitcher plant. She trapped and devoured other Ethereals, then consumed their Ether to make herself stronger.

As a mutualistic symbiotic swarm, Nineveh also fed part of her own Ether back to the Ethereal bees swarming around her.

Nourished by her flowers, those bee swarms grew larger and larger.

Viewed purely on those terms, Nineveh was an extremely troublesome Ethereal. Given time, if she broke through to level seven, she would stir up enormous waves inside Hollow Zero and might even cause Hollow Zero to activate again.

But because of her nature, her existence also had an upside.

She regularly hunted other types of Ethereals and used their Ether to raise her own bee swarm. The bees were dangerous, but their attack methods were far too one-note compared to other Ethereals, which made them relatively easy to deal with.

Besides, because of that very trait, Nineveh herself wasn't especially powerful among level-six Ethereals. As long as she was kept from leveling up and her Ether activity was suppressed to a certain degree, her presence actually protected the outer edge of Hollow Zero, and the benefits outweighed the costs.

With her keeping order, no especially dangerous Notorious Ethereals appeared on the outskirts. After all, they'd all ended up as her fertilizer.

So it was like cutting chives. Nineveh was the chive patch. Every time her Ether activity swelled past a certain point, Hollow Special Operations Section 6 went out to subdue her, cutting down her Ether activity and her bee swarm without wiping her out completely.

And honestly, ever since Nineveh appeared, the Ether activity around Hollow Zero's outskirts had become far more stable than before.

Nineveh's own attack power wasn't especially high among Ethereals either. She was like a gardener, with little interest in humans.

If you ran into her inside Hollow Zero, all you had to do was avoid getting tangled up and surrounded by her bee swarm, and the odds of escaping were quite good.

"Mutualistic Symbiotic Ethereal Swarm, huh. Fitting name. It really is mutually beneficial for humans too."

Musachi's expression turned wry.

Without Nineveh, the military would have to spend huge amounts of manpower and resources to periodically suppress Hollow Zero's Ethereals. But with her around, ordinary Ethereals were heavily suppressed, and she specifically feasted on Ethereals above level three. The military only needed to run regular cleanups, then wait for Nineveh to fatten up before harvesting her again.

Soon Musachi was standing outside a fruit shop on the corner of Sixth Street.

A crate of fruit sat on the curb, and among it were honeydew melons.

Musachi stepped up and began picking through the melons on the shelf.

"Hey there, how are these melons?"

"Don't worry, guaranteed ripe, guaranteed sweet, and if it's not sweet, it's free!"

The fruit stall owner said with a grin.

"You said it! If it's not sweet, I'm coming back for you!"

"Relax, would I sell you an unripe melon?"

The owner picked out the best-looking melon and handed it to Musachi.

Musachi turned it over, couldn't tell a thing, and passed it to Hoshimi Miyabi.

"How is it?"

"Good."

Cradling the melon in her arms, Hoshimi Miyabi visibly cheered up.

The corners of her mouth rose a full ten pixels!

"Oh, buying it for your girlfriend? Heh heh, the girl's quite shy, but she sure is pretty."

The stall owner beamed at Hoshimi Miyabi beside him.

He couldn't see her whole face, only her nose and the cherry-red lips below it.

But even half a face was enough to tell she was a real beauty.

"She's alright, she's alright."

Musachi paid with a smile and didn't correct him.

Hoshimi Miyabi opened her mouth, wanting to set the record straight, but in the end closed it again.

The more she explained, the happier this guy would probably get, wouldn't he?

Hoshimi Miyabi grumbled to herself.

On the way back, though, since she was hugging the melon with both arms, she didn't let Musachi hold her hand again.

When Musachi returned to the shop, he found that Remielle and Beli had come back too, in addition to the trio.

By now the sky was darkening. The setting sun had gilded the city skyline in gold, and the distant clouds blazed like roaring flames in the refracted light.

"Hm? Looks like we have another guest in the shop~"

Remielle raised an eyebrow and smiled at Hoshimi Miyabi, who had followed Musachi in.

Beli, standing nearby, gaped at Hoshimi Miyabi as well.

"Remi, is this..."

"Mm-hm, exactly what you're thinking~ The current Void Hunter, Hoshimi Miyabi~"

Remielle said with a grin.

Hoshimi Miyabi heard how Remielle put it, and her ears twitched in confusion. Void Hunter was one thing, but why "current"? Could there be a previous generation?

"So, did you find a place?"

Musachi walked into the shop and looked over at Remi and Beli.

"We did. It's near Sixth Street, just a short walk from here."

Beli nodded with a soft laugh.

After a full day of searching, the two had found a suitable place near Sixth Street. Remielle living here was one thing, but Beli, though quite fond of Musachi, still didn't know him well enough and felt too awkward to move in with him.

Thinking of that, Beli glanced curiously at Remielle beside her.

Honestly, when she'd heard from Remielle during the day that Remielle had moved into Musachi's home right after they met, Beli had been stunned.

Beli knew Remielle well. The woman seemed to have no sense of boundaries, but in truth she had a fierce pride.

Yet somehow she'd ended up living here by sheer happenstance.

Looking at it now, though, maybe it was because Musachi naturally drew in people like them?

Never mind Remielle, even Beli found herself feeling drawn to Musachi without meaning to whenever she saw him. What exactly was this damned Creator fragment's Authority? Surely it couldn't have a succubus effect on Enchainers or the corrupted...

Beli muttered to herself.

At times like this, she missed Sunbringer a little. If Sunbringer were here, she could probably figure out what had happened to Musachi.

Still, going to Roscaelifer now wasn't a good idea...

"That's great news."

Hearing that Beli had found a place, Musachi couldn't help being pleased.

"Now we'll have someone to cook for us. Ha ha, awesome! Honestly, I've been sick of cooking for ages. Beli, from now on you're our exclusive cooking granny!"

"Cooking granny... what kind of weird title is that? You make it sound like I'm your elder..."

Beli pressed a hand to her forehead with a pained look.

"Hehe, Mama Beli~ We're counting on you from now on~ If you ever skip cooking for the two of us, we'll starve to death~"

Remielle chimed in, seizing the chance to stir things up.

"You two are impossible..."

Beli sighed. Couldn't the two of them stop being so in sync at times like this?

Then Beli turned to Hoshimi Miyabi.

"It's about that time anyway. Would you like to stay for dinner?"

She smiled gently, her gaze like that of someone looking at the child of a dear old friend.

The two of them were separated by quite a few generations, though by true age Beli wasn't much older than Hoshimi Miyabi.

But for some reason, that was exactly how it felt.

A hundred years had passed, and seas had turned into mulberry fields. Humanity had entered the age of New Eridu, and remnants of the old era like them should have found no vessel to hold them, only to fade away into the foam of the times. Yet Beli hadn't expected to find even a sliver of belonging in this little bookshop.

It wasn't much, but it was there.

Perhaps Remielle had felt the same way at the beginning?

Through her time with Musachi, Remielle's old feeling of being out of step with the world had been pulled back, bit by bit, and her heart was no longer a desolate desert...

Invited by Beli, Hoshimi Miyabi hesitated for a moment, unsure how to answer.

Musachi answered for her instead.

"Stay. It's just one more pair of chopsticks."

Then he turned to the trio.

"You three stay too. You worked hard today."

Ever since the trio had started helping out at the bookshop, business had gotten livelier and livelier.

If he was being honest, all of it was thanks to the Angels of Delusion. Without Cecilia's strategizing, the bookshop might still be running at a loss...

And in that case, Musachi would have had to seriously consider washing himself squeaky clean and marrying into the Hoshimi Family...

"Yay, yay~ If I get to eat with Lady Hoshimi Miyabi, of course I'm staying!"

Sunna agreed without a second thought, and Nangong nodded as well.

Aria didn't need to eat, but she plugged in a charging cable for the sake of a little ceremony.

Seeing Sunna's excited smile, Beli and Remielle exchanged a glance and chuckled.

If Sunna ever found out that Void Hunters outnumbered non-Void Hunters in this room, who knew what kind of face she'd make.

Seven people in the room, and aside from the trio, the other four were all Void Hunters. What a setup...

Beli worked fast. In under an hour she had a whole table of dishes ready.

Of course, since time was short, Musachi had also gone out to buy some prepared food.

The breakfast shop next door was doing so well that it had opened a Waifei Peninsula-style braised meat deli as well, so after the morning rush of buns and the like it could sell other things during the day.

The table was a feast.

Besides Beli's four dishes, Musachi had bought a roast duck, a plate of boneless chicken feet, a plate of spicy duck neck, and a crispy fish.

It was definitely enough to feed everyone present.

The seating arrangement was interesting too.

The original table only had room for four.

With seven people, it was a bit cramped.

But with some squeezing, everyone just fit.

There was an empty seat between Remielle and Beli, and Musachi, seeing it, shamelessly tried to slide into it.

Remielle and Beli promptly pushed him out together.

"Get lost. Your seat is over there."

Remielle said with a smile, pointing at a corner of the table on the diagonal.

"?"

Musachi stared at the spot with a face full of question marks.

Hey, did you two forget who outranks who around here?!

Then he watched Remielle and Beli pull Hoshimi Miyabi in between them and sit down.

Musachi sighed.

Fine. I won't stoop to arguing with women. Sitting here isn't bad, at least I get more elbow room. You two go ahead and squeeze together!

Of course, that was what he told himself, but looking at Hoshimi Miyabi's seat, he was still a little envious.

He wanted to be surrounded by Beli and Remielle too...

"Here, here, try this. You'll definitely like it. It's a sweet dish I made especially for you~"

Beli smiled warmly and picked up a bite of food for Hoshimi Miyabi.

On the other side, Remielle was grinning as she took a roast duck pancake, dipped it in sauce, added scallion strips and cucumber and hawthorn fruit leather, and rolled it into a neat little wrap.

"Ahh~"

Under their ceaseless feeding, Hoshimi Miyabi became an expressionless eating machine.

The three of them were seated like this:

[Remielle] [Hoshimi Miyabi] [Beli]

Beli had a wonderful figure too. She couldn't match Remielle, but she was far fuller than most people. With Hoshimi Miyabi hemmed in on both sides, she only had to tilt her head slightly to feel an overwhelming sense of pressure...